


Lying In Silence

by noveltea



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-10
Updated: 2010-07-10
Packaged: 2017-10-10 11:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/99451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noveltea/pseuds/noveltea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all you need is someone who knows the whole truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lying In Silence

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://debc.livejournal.com/profile)[**debc**](http://debc.livejournal.com/)'s [](http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_stocking/profile)[**fandom_stocking**](http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_stocking/)

Dean didn't know how she'd found them, but she had.

Jo had knocked on their motel door and without so much as an explanation walked in and made herself at home. She'd changed; somehow she wasn't quite the same girl Dean remembered. Or maybe he'd changed. He wasn't sure. There were lots of things he wasn't sure about anymore.

She stayed the night, taking the floor, and the extra pillows and flimsy blanket ignoring Sam's attempt to convince her to take the bed. She did what she wanted now, and she wasn't trying to prove herself to anyone. And she wouldn't tell them how she found their location. "Sources," was all she would say.

She didn't ask about their cases, although she shared some of her own when asked. A couple of demons down south; a vampire the next town over. A ghost haunting a high school in San Diego, killing high-achieving students.

The second night she stayed, Sam left with Ruby. Jo's eyes had narrowed at the sight of the other woman, a feeling of uneasiness settling over her. They'd narrowed even further when Dean told her what Ruby was.

"And you just let him hang out with a demon? Jesus, Dean."

She handed him a beer.

"You look like crap," she told him. "Have you even been sleeping?"

Dean shook his head, too tired to play games with her anymore. She didn't know what he'd been through, or she hadn't given any indication that she was aware, but he wasn't in the mood for sharing the deepest, darkest memories from Hell. But he did need a friend, and Sam was too close for comfort these days. If nothing else, deep down he knew he could trust Jo. And that was enough.

She didn't wait for an invitation, or for approval, when she sat down next to him on the edge of the bed, thighs touching. Neither of them did intimate – they both knew too much to be comforted with an arm around the shoulder or a pat to a back. That was too superficial to be real.

One beer turned into four, and Sam still wasn't back. A message left on Dean's phone mentioned something about being back by the morning and not to wait up. Dean hadn't bothered to check it.

Another round of beers and discussions on hunting techniques for shape-shifters – Jo hadn't encountered them before and was curious; Dean was happy for anything that distracted him from his own memories – and an unprompted kiss, and Jo didn't sleep on the floor that night.

Dean let himself get lost inside the moment, using Jo as his anchor to the real world. The real world where a kiss meant something and the touch of bare skin against bare skin wasn't harsh and brutal. It was soft and even if it wasn't love, it was enough to get by. The warmth of a body curled up around his was enough.

For the first time he slept through the night without being plagued by his memories of Hell. He'd found a shield; a frail, breakable shield, but a willing one.

Watching Dean sleep from the foot of the bed, Castiel smiled.

It didn't quite reach his eyes.


End file.
